A federal judge Friday sent back to prison an Ypsilanti ex-con accused of buying dangerous weapons while under court supervision and downloading Islamic State manuals for making bombs, explosives and poisons.
The order by U.S. District Judge Terrence Berg comes one week after Yousef Mohammad Ramadan was temporarily jailed amid government complaints that the ex-con was violating conditions of supervised release imposed as part of his conviction on three gun charges. That case followed an FBI counterterrorism investigation that portrayed Ramadan as an ardent ISIS supporter and dangerous man.
Ramadan, who was less than one month away from being free of court supervision, was sent back to federal prison for two months and ordered to serve 34 additional months under court oversight.
Ramadan, 35, was serving two years of supervised release and prosecutors say he violated several conditions by buying two BB guns, communicating with known felons and refusing to let court officials analyze his computer and cellphones. Investigators managed to access the devices and allege Ramadan was communicating with the Islamic State, downloading the manuals and researching how to build 3D guns.
A message seeking comment was left Friday with Ramadan’s lawyer, Andrew Densemo.
Ramadan’s lawyers had pushed for his release, saying he was being punished for his beliefs and that consuming ISIS-related content was not a violation of supervised release.
Ramadan, who was being held Friday at the Sanilac County Jail, has not been charged with any new crimes and has “generally complied” while under court supervision, one of his defense lawyers, Amanda Bashi, said during a Feb. 9 detention hearing. The tow truck driver has been working hard and sending money to relatives in Palestine, she added.
“No positive drug tests, no missed appointments, certainly no commission or attempt to commit a violent act, let alone an act of terrorism or material support for terrorism,” Bashi said.
Ramadan, however, is a greater danger to the public than in August 2017, prosecutors argued. That’s when the father of four was removed from a Royal Jordanian Airlines flight at Detroit Metropolitan Airport after investigators searched his luggage and found pepper spray, knives, a stun gun, black masks, two-way radios, a gas mask, a tactical vest and photos of a homemade pipe bomb.
At the time, prosecutors portrayed him as a violent, dangerous crook obsessed with weapons and the Islamic State, but the case never led to terrorism charges. Instead, Ramadan was charged with gun crimes after investigators discovered weapons in a storage locker after removing him from the flight.
He spent approximately 31/2 years in jail while awaiting trial. In September 2021, a jury convicted Ramadan of possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number, possessing a stolen firearm and an unregistered silencer.
U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts sentenced Ramadan to time served and two years of court supervision.
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